An email workflow is a series of steps and actions that you can automate to make your email marketing and fundraising more effective and efficient. A workflow isn't just a "one and done" email blast or campaign. For the purpose of this post, you'll want to think about the entire flow of the email series, your goals, how many emails you want to send, and the end goal or action that you want your donors, members or contacts to make. If you're familiar with the business marketing concept of "lead nurturing" you can think of it like that—donor nurturing.

If you're fortunate enough to have a robust automated marketing platform, you can get super detailed with your workflow. If not, no problem. You can use various tools and systems to piece together a cohesive email workflow that can be tracked, measured and analyzed. It will take a little more time and resources, but it can be done.

So, let's get started planning and creating a fundraising workflow to your donors.

Your donor database is the heart and soul of your organization. With it, you reach out to members, keep track of sensitive data, and (hopefully) connect all the dots of your marketing, fundraising, recruiting, volunteer operations and more.

Where do you host this critical asset? How do you maintain it, keep it safe, and ensure that data is never lost?

Does it live on an internal server you maintain or is it hosted in the cloud? Not sure? Keep reading.

If you don’t already have someone who is experienced at writing and applying for grants, you may need to hire a grant writer.

There are two reputable associations for finding a grant consultant; the Grant Professionals Association and the Association of Fundraising Professionals. It’s important to find individuals who are experienced and committed to a specific code of ethics. Members of these organizations are more likely to be both.

We hear a common refrain from nonprofits: “We don’t have the money to do this.”

Whether it’s a new website or inbound marketing project, budgets don’t reflect a priority for modern marketing efforts. It's like asking the marketing department to run a bake sale to raise funds for a new website ... that's a lot of cookies to sell!

LinkedIn is not merely a site to host your online resume. It has become a major business-oriented social network for professionals and organizations.

LinkedIn can be a valuable and effective tool for sales and marketing teams. With over 300 million members (at the time of this article) and a lot of activity from c-level professionals and decision-makers, it's a vibrant community for business.

It can also be a great tool for those who work in development at nonprofits. The Vice President of Philanthropy, or similar such title, is the nonprofit counterpart of a Business Development Director at a for-profit company.

If sales folks can use LinkedIn to find prospects, warm leads, recruit and get referrals, then many of the same principles should apply to the nonprofit world.

Growing membership, finding sponsors and new donors, connecting with existing donors, getting referrals--all of these activities are well suited to this particular social network.

Whether you’re new to Facebook or have had a page for several years, sometimes you just don’t know what to say. We’ve all been there; staring at that little white box on Facebook that begs, “What’s on your mind?” You know that you should say something, but you’re unsure of what.

If you are a church, it’s important to have a strong social media presence in order to keep your congregation engaged. After all, Facebook is a powerful tool that you can use to educate and inform, uplift and encourage.

If you resonate with the aforementioned writer’s block, you’ve come to the right spot. We’ve compiled five helpful ideas to post on your church’s Facebook page.